Coppers

This episode joins Tayside police's newest recruits as they hit the streets for the first time. Unlike most English forces, police in Scotland are still taking on new recruits. After training at the Scottish Police College, the next step to becoming a copper is 15 weeks out on the streets under the watchful eye of a more experienced officer. The rookies face the realities of life on the beat and it's a far cry from their sanitised training classrooms. The tutors expect them to be shocked - and not all of them will make it through the tough assessment. PC Heather Milne thinks they'll be unprepared: 'It is an eye opener. You don't have "probationer" stamped on your head. The public just see a police officer and expect you to know what to do.' The programme follows the new recruits as they arrive for their first day as a police officer; their first arrest, first drugs raid and first experience of a sudden death. Rookie PC Iona McIntyre has left a job as an auditor to become a police officer: 'You're just trying to appear confident with the public with a calm and comforting exterior even if you're in complete turmoil inside.' Tutor PC Willie Hughes has a friendly warning for the new recruits: 'The reality more often than not is you're just trying to hold what's left of society together before it finally implodes and kills itself.'